Sunday, January 27, 2013

I was in need of some kind of entertainment center and I'm a huge fan of turning regular, old, beat up dressers, stands or accent tables into such!

Besides the norm - Painting, I decided to try my nack at furniture tack designs. Super. Awesome. Fun. I'm one of those people that rush through everything because I'm super excited for the outcome.. but then the outcome isn't perfect.. unless you look from a distance! :-X :-) Hah.

I put the tacks on the entertainment center first. I didn't exactly measure <-- wouldn't suggest that route.

This accent table I actually use for an end table. Its hard to find good end tables that fit (are high enough) for sectionals.. well the places I'm looking anyways.. okay I'm too cheap. This project I did with a little more planning and I took my time. I used a pen to mark a dot every 3/4 of an inch. I know there are tools to do this way easier, but the one and only place I looked I couldn't find it, so I opted out :)

I used my fingers as guides when I tapped the furniture tack in each time, ever so gently as not to beat up my fingers. Then I would obviously remove my fingers and bam, strike that tack in there.. I think I had a little too much fun with that part.

All in all in was a fun time and it was a super easy way to fancy up some thrift store furniture finds! I found the furniture tacks, with the help of an employee at Joann Fabric's. They were like $2 for a little box of 30 something. So I grabbed all that they had, which was maybe 6 or 7 boxes. I knew I would want to try and use the tacks whenever I had the chance and for so cheap, why not!?

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Sometimes some pieces just need a change. This accent table wasn't working in my apartment. To better collaborate with my scheme, I painted it glossy white with metallic legs. Its really amazing what a can of spray paint can do.

I really hope that you had as good as day as I have had today. It just felt like one of those days where things were falling into place.

I went a little spray paint crazy today, its true, but I really like the improvements it made to some of my pieces. I am most excited about these Metallic Ottomans that used to be red. They were a red faux leather that I picked up from TJ Maxx for $20 a piece. I got them a few years ago and back then the red correlated with my design scheme but not so much anymore. I've seen metallic ottomans all over lately and decided I needed to have a pair of my own.

I don't know about you but I don't have a budget that allows me to always buy new, so repurposing is my best friend. Not to mention it is entirely better for the environment - which is key these days.

Monday, April 16, 2012

You know how children have "play" clothes, so they can run and play outside, get dirty and its all fine and dandy. Well this girl {me} should probably definitely have a set of cooking clothes and probably some eating clothes as well. I know there are things out there called aprons, but we'll forget about that for a second. :)

I am seriously the worlds messiest cook and although I'm a fantastic eater..{ I brag because I CANT STAND open mouth chewers and loud chewers}, I always seem to get some sort stain on me. I mean its just a given, if I wear white or light colors, well its just fate. I always get stuff on my clothes and usually I'm lucky that the stains come out in the wash with no special treatment. Well that was until recently..

dun dun dun..

A couple of weeks ago I was cooking, while wearing a pair of my favorite pants. Grease splattered on them, oh no. So I just did what I always do, threw them in the wash, with no special care. Low and behold the grease stain was still prominent after a wash and dry. Yikes. I wasn't going to let go of these pants so I was determined to salvage them - so I scoured the Internet.

This is what I found:
Many people said that if you had already washed and dried the item it would be hard to get the grease stain out.. I wasn't having it or believing it, mainly because I didn't want to. Good thing I didn't.

I read quite a few different things and many of them said combine Dawn dish soap and Baking Soda to make a paste and leave it for 30 minutes.. Gotta love the Internet!!

What I did:First I squirted the Palmolive Dish Soap right on the spot, then slopped some baking soda on, mixed it and massaged it in with a clean, damp dish towel. I didn't have 30 minutes to spare so I gambled on 5. Then, I threw them in the wash at the hottest setting on a shorter cycle since I was strapped for time.

And it totally worked!! I'm so excited about this, I've sadly lost many items to grease.. not anymore :)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

After months of drooling over a Buffalo Chicken Roll Recipe found here, I finally made them!

I am SUCH a lover of anything buffalo chicken (except those cupcakes scare me!)!! So I just had to try them. Pinterest just rocks for finding great recipes!

I am so excited to say that they are absolutely delicious. The boyfriend and I just loved them! They were crispy and so flavorful. They were also really filling. I don't fill easy but I had just two of them and a bunch of peas and was stuffed! The boyfriend, on the other hand, had a handful and went back for seconds.

They were so easy to make that they would be great appetizers for a party or a great food to bring to a party. They will surely be gobbled up, rather quickly I'd say. I am now a huge fan of cooking with Egg Rolls. For whatever reason, I didn't expect them to be so easy to work with, and they are.

I used the same directions as the recipe except I made more of a chicken wing sauce rather than just using Franks Red Hot. Also, I added some shredded cheddar!

I'm terrible at sharing my recipes, such as my chicken wing sauce, because I just kind of throw things in and don't exactly measure. What I can tell you is the ingredients I use for them and you can be the judge. I really like my chicken wing sauce, but I know people that make their wing sauce with just a few ingredients and it is yummy, too.

Monday, April 2, 2012

This project was inspired from blogger Sweet Verbena. She recently posted an AWESOME DIY project of a Tribal Pattern Tee. With summer on the brink, kind of, bright colors are more than necessary. I created a pattern for my tee and it was smooth sailin' from there. Clever and Catchy even used my pattern on a canvas tote for the beach and it looks awesome!

This is my take on the Tribal Print Shirt, and the steps I took:

First I created a design in Adobe Photoshop. It is really easy if you are familiar with the program.

I printed out the design, to scale, so I could trace it onto freezer paper.

Then I went back into Photoshop to figure out which colors looked good where. Since it was already designed, I just threw on the color. It was nice to see/plan the colors before hand.

Items you will need:

T-Shirt

Freezer Paper

A Printed Design or free hand it if your awesome like that!

Exacto Knife

Acrylic Paint

Foam Brush

Iron

Pencil

Cardboard: to fit in shirt

When you have printed out your design to trace, well, start tracing :)

MAKE SURE you trace on the NON-shiny side. That is the wax that will stick to your shirt.

Then, with an exacto knife, start cutting out the pieces.

Next, iron on your pieces, remember, shiny side facing your shirt.

Ironing only takes a couple seconds, easy peasy.

BEFORE YOU START PAINTING:

Put something in the shirt so the paint doe not bleed to the other side of it.

I used cardboard from an old shoebox.

Now the best part: Once the paint is dry, peel off the freezer paper and voila!

This Saturday, Brittany from Clever and Catchy, and I had an awesome night of DIYs! We had a couple of Whipped & OJs (Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka & Orange Juice) and of course made quite a few DIY goodies. It is so fun to do DIYs with friends, creative energy really peaks!

One of my DIY projects included one of my recent thrift purchases, the NY & Company Top. I used a white chain embellishment to add some much needed detail. I really like the outcome, what do you think?